The chapter opens with Gabriel recognizing Laure Voss as the Wraith in Red, an ancient daughter of the Forever King infamous for atrocities at Vellene. Gabriel and Aaron hold her at bay with the holy light of their inkwork, but their ammunition is nearly spent and Greyhand and Talon are grievously wounded. Laure probes their minds, taunting Gabriel over his sister Amélie and lovers Ilsa and Astrid, and tormenting Aaron by invoking his past with Sacha and his stepfather, trying to shatter their focus and draw them out of their protective circle of light.

Despite Talon’s warning to hold formation, Laure’s provocations succeed: Talon snaps at a mention of Aoife and charges, Aaron with him. Laure moves faster than both, shattering Talon’s arm and disemboweling him, then slashing Aaron’s face to the bone and caving his ribs, though Aaron manages to widen the wound at Laure’s neck that Greyhand had started. With the circle broken, Gabriel stands alone in the ebbing light as Laure circles, mixing seduction and threat to unnerve him.

As Laure closes, inviting Gabriel to surrender to pleasure and death, Gabriel feigns capitulation. At the last moment he ignites his final silverbomb and thrusts it into the wound in her neck. The blast engulfs Laure in silver fire, splitting her shoulder and throat and setting her dress ablaze. Though staggered and burning, Laure does not fall. Gabriel uses the moment to haul Greyhand, Talon, and Aaron from the bridge.

Gabriel drags the wounded through the streets to Coste Cathedral as midnight tolls. Inside on holy ground, he tends to his companions: Greyhand unconscious but alive, Talon eviscerated, and Aaron gashed and broken-ribbed. Laure, blackened and ruined yet animate, appears at the cathedral threshold and vows eternal pursuit: to take all they have, unmake all they are, and make Gabriel kneel. Hearing horns and approaching soldiers under Baron de Coste, Laure chooses to withdraw, having accomplished her objective, and vanishes with the parting creed “All Shall Kneel.”

Safe for the moment, the hunters take stock. Greyhand chastises Gabriel’s disobedience even as Gabriel affirms he will not abandon his brothers. As Baron de Coste’s men converge on the square, Greyhand’s falcon Archer swoops into the cathedral bearing a dead white raven. Bound to its leg is a parchment map of the Godsend Mountains with notes on towns, populations, assets, and garrisons, and black arrows aimed toward Coste, Tolbrook, Skyefall, and beyond.

Gabriel realizes the parchment is an invasion plan. The group understands Laure’s mission in Coste was to dispatch intelligence to a larger force, and that the threat extends beyond their personal hunt to a looming campaign against the Nordlund.